Music always was my passion and my personal realization.
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Who: Acoustic guitarist and musical director |
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I can tell you he's one of the nicest people I've ever met. This is why he's getting this corner of the site. He's always willing to lend a hand if he can. He has signed the guestbook twice and always keeps me informed about the band's comings and goings. I hope he doesn't mind this. He deserves the recognition. |
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Zabumbatuq |
Brazz Jazz |
Taken from the liner notes of their 1996 EP, Za-BOOM-ba-TOOC Zabumbatuq's idea behind this project is to show a preliminary version of their full length CD to be released later this year. For this EP, five original compositions were selected, three of which were composed by members of the group. In addition to these, Zabumbatuq chose to record two compositions of two distinctive friends who have contributed their music to the group's repertoire. |
Brazz Jazz: The Sheryl Cohen & Rubens de La Corte Duo is an exciting Vocal/Guitar duo performing mainstream Jazz and Brazilian styles including Bossa Nova and Samba. Sheryl Cohen and Rubens de La Corte formed Brazz Jazz while students at The Berklee College of Music in Boston. The original concept of this unique duo was to combine the Standard, American jazz repertoire with the rhythms of Brazilian music. Through the years, Brazz Jazz has remained true to its goal. During that time, the duo performed extensively in and around the Boston area in local clubs, restaurants and music stores. In addition, they have performed live, in studio on 88.1 WERS, the Emerson College Radio Station. Sheryl Cohen is originally from San Francisco, California. Prior to studying music at The Berklee College of Music, Ms. Cohen received a Bachelors Degree in Literature from The California State University at Long Beach. In addition to performing in the Duo, Ms. Cohen is the vocalist/arranger in a Boston based jazz quintet. Rubens de La Corte is from Sao Paulo, Brazil. He has played acoustic and electric guitar professionally since the age of sixteen. In addition to performing and composing Rubens de La Corte has also taught guitar and music theory privately and at The Ulisses Rocha School of Music in Brazil. In 1993 Mr. De La Corte received a Berklee Entering Student Talent Scholarship and is now studying Jazz Composition/Performance at Berklee. |
And now he plays guitar for Angélique!
And if you listen
to Black Ivory Soul on "Bahia," you'll hear him play.
July
5, 2003
eJazz Interview with Rubens de La Corte Translated by Betina (with a little help from me) Very special thanks to Betina for the work you put into this. A
known figure in the New York musical enviroment, Rubens de la Corte
is not known in Brasil The number of great Brasilian musicians acting abroad is huge, sometimes between the best in the universal music, without being known in Brasil. Rubens de la Corte is one of them. Ten years living, studying and working in the US, where he went to the Berklee School of Music (Boston) and Aaron Copland School of Music (New York), today Rubens is the musical director and guitarrist for Angélique Kidjo, an African singer that is enchanting audiences in Europe and US (and soon Brazilian). ejazz: I would like you to tell us about your musical history? Rubens de la Corte: I started to study music when I was nine years old. First classical guitar and when I was 12 also electric guitar. I've always studied, and still do, the erudite (classical) pieces and techniques, but I choose as a path the vein of the popular Brazilian music, jazz and pop. Since the beginning I had great family support. My parents always encourage me to study music seriously, and they enjoy a lot to see me play. I have two brothers that are also musicians. The oldest plays the bass, and he lives in Barcelona. He played at the Frankfurt Opera and in many other orchestras in Germany over ten years, and today he's in Barcelona's Opera. The youngest is an architect but always had music as a hobby - he is a drummer, and he played with my music group for two years when I was still living in São Paulo. I have a degree in architecture, but I never practice it. I've always studied music together with school and the university in Brasil. Music always was my passion and my personal realization. My professional carrer began at the end of my high school years. I've played for a long time in the night clubs in São Paulo and in many groups with different styles. For four years, before moving to the US, I had my own group, and we did a lot of shows. In 1993 I got a scholarship to Berklee School of music in Boston. I had a degree in Guitar Performance and Jazz Composition in 1998. Soon after I moved to New York where I earned my Masters degree in Jazz Performance at Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College. In New York I've always played with a lot of people, especially in the Brazilian music scenario, which is huge around here. For two years now I've been the musical director and guitarrist for Angélique Kidjo. ejazz: Tell me about your experience in Berklee and the projects born there. My impression of the days that I've spent there is that it seems like the UN of music. Music language is really universal? Rubens: The music language is totally universal! And Berklee is a perfect translation of this sentence. Over there we have different students coming from different countries sharing experiences, styles and ideas. Personally, I've noticed that the Latin Americans, the African and the African-American students have a big musical and cultural identification with their origin countries and try to mix them up with other styles and with what they learned at Berklee. The Europeans are more interested in Jazz - most of them come to Berklee playing their instruments very well. There's a lot of people also not interested in anything at all, they are there to spend their parents money or the money of the government of their own countries, people that are not from the business. Let's not say names please (laughs). Berklee was great for me. I was there for almost five years, I graduated Magna cum lauda, and I've received an award of the guitar department, besides the 75% scholarship based on my experience and technique with the instrument. I've studied a lot of things like arrangement, composition, improvisation, besides the basics like harmony, ear training, but the day-to-day contact with people from around the world and the exchange of experiences were the best things. The classes and the formal studies were very important, but I think they can't be compared with the contact with different musicians. While still in Berklee, I started two projects that ended in CDs, Brazz Jazz and Zabumbatuq. Brazz Jazz started as a voice guitar duo, combined with jazz and Brazilian Popular Music (MPB). Sometimes the duo expanded to a trio, quartet or quintet, depending on the occasion, working with standards of Jazz and MPB - we recorded the CD with a quintet. Zabumbatuq was an instrumental music group that on some occasions had a vocalist as a guest. We had the intention of doing good Brazilian jazz, with good arrangements and improvisations. Zabumbatuq also mixed two styles and had a very strong jazz influence. ejazz: And how did Angelique Kidjo appear in your life? Rubens: In NY it is very important to make contacts, play with everybody, socialize, show your face, make friendships, play in jam sessions, exchange phone numbers, make recordings. So people can start to know who you are, to be interested in your music and how you play. So one day I received a phone call from the arranger and bass player of Angelique, who is also a co-writer of the songs. Jean picked my phone number with a common friend and invited me to record the guitar in the demo version of the Black Ivory Soul record. They liked the result a lot, and since then other opportunities have started to show up. Then I started to be the musical director and guitar player for Angelique's band. ejazz: How is the work rhythm with Angelique Kidjo? The indication of the CD Black Ivory Soul to the Grammy changed anything? Rubens: We were on tour for a year and a half. First we opened the Dave Matthews and Macy Grey shows in stadiums for 35, 40, 45 thousand people, we toured with the Neville Brothers. After that, we did a one year solo tour for Angelique around the US, Canada, Caribbean, Japan and Europe, where we have been six times. Lately we've opened the Santana shows in Europe. Angelique was already known in Europe, and each time she's being more and more recognized in other parts of the world. I think that the Grammy indication is going to help that and also in the interest of people to know her work. ejazz: On the CD Black Ivory soul, the first music, with your partitipation on the guitar, is called "Bahia." Tell me about Angelique's identification with Bahia? Rubens: Angelique has been in Brazil twice. She has been in Salvador once, for a month. She loves Salvador, she identified herself with the culture in general. Angelique sees a lot of similarities between Salvador and Benin, her country of origin. The music, the way of life, the language, the religion, the food, are things that made her identify herself with Salvador a lot. I've been to Benin, and there is a huge likeness between them. In Brazil, Angelique sang and composed with Carlinhos Brown and Daniela Mercury. On the CD Black Ivory Soul there are three compositions with Carlinhos Brown. The Brazilian version of the CD (out next month) has a participation of Gilberto Gil and Daniela Mercury - we will do a tour in Brazil this year. ejazz: And what about your own work: can we expect something soon? Rubens: Nowadays I'm composing and re-arranging some music for a possible project. I've been composing also with a great percussionist Gilmar Iglesias Gomes (who has played with Enrique Iglesias, Harry Belafonte, Daniela Mercury) and working together with Sheryl Cohen doing arrangements on her project. |
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